Nvidia Earnings Rise, as Coronavirus Lifts Games and Remote Services

Strong growth in computer games and remote computing services, driven by people stuck at home during the coronavirus pandemic, lifted earnings for chip maker Nvidia Corp.

Revenue rose 39% to $3.08 billion in the first quarter ended April 26, with the data center business recording its first $1 billion quarter, the company said.

The company said its first-quarter sales did not factor in its recently closed acquisition of Mellanox Technologies, whose first-quarter revenue was US$429 million, a 40 percent increase over the same period past year. The net profit soared 133 percent to USD 917 while earnings per diluted share advanced 130 percent to USD 1.47 million, and adjusted diluted EPS went up 105 percent to USD 1.80. The results reported by most major US tech companies in recent weeks covered the first three months of the year, and reflect only a few weeks of quarantine measures rolled out across much of the country in March.

The company's rollout of new products has continued apace despite the global health crisis.

The company's forecast for the second quarter is US$3.65 billion, plus or minus 2 percent, which would represent a roughly 41 percent increase over the same period past year.

Nine analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $3 billion.

The company said the forecast includes a contribution from its $6.9 billion purchase of Israeli chip firm Mellanox Technologies Ltd, which strengthened its data center business. The segment beat analyst estimates of $1.07 billion, according to Refinitiv data.

Gross margin, or the percentage of sales remaining after deducting the cost of production, will be about 66 per cent in the current quarter, Nvidia also said.The shares were little changed in extended trading following the report.

And while we've been keeping our expectations about Intel's upcoming GPUs in check - the company in the past has made it clear that we shouldn't expect a high-end gaming GPU just yet - the results are still rather disappointing.

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